Bandhan Bank, one of the largest private banks in India, has overhauled its core banking system and expanded its digital services through a collaboration with Oracle.
Through this partnership, Bandhan Bank has not only modernised its operations in retail and wholesale banking areas, but has also introduced new digital capabilities implementing Oracle payments, retail loan originations, and services for retail internet and mobile banking to cater to millions of customers, particularly focusing on underserved segments in Indian.
Established in 2001, the bank serves a customer base of nearly 32 million through a network of over 6,250 banking outlets across 35 out of 36 states in India and union territories
Originally founded as a not-for-profit institution, providing micro loans to underprivileged sections of the society, the bank has evolved into one of the fastest-growing private banks in India.
The rapid expansion prompted Bandhan Bank to work with Oracle, replacing legacy systems and manual processes with the latest in banking technology.
The comprehensive transformation — including diverse businesses of housing finance, general banking, and microcredit — was completed within a two-year timeframe.
According to Oracle, the implementation of its FLEXCUBE’s scalable and flexible platform, along with digital banking services, has significantly enhanced operational efficiency and elevated customer experiences.
“Transforming our core processes and migrating to digital offerings with Oracle technology will give further boost to our growth and enable us to provide enhanced customer experience through innovative financial solutions,” said Ratan Kumar Kesh, executive director and COO of Bandhan Bank.
He said Bandhan Bank now efficiently streamlines general banking, housing finance, and emerging enterprise business operations, offering end-to-end support for critical market functionalities, including group loans, housing loans, personal and vehicle loans, payments, and taxes, across its retail and corporate banking business verticals.
The platform also introduces corporate banking modules to support the bank’s domestic trade business and ensures a uniform approach for non-performing assets processing across all its advances portfolios.
As an example, earlier, banking staff had the capability to initiate micro loans using handheld devices. With the implementation of Oracle’s mid-office loan workflow system, the process has gained enhanced autonomy.
The system can independently originate loans or seamlessly resume processing from where the handheld left off, culminating in a more efficient and dependable origination and processing of micro loans.
The new technology has also enabled the bank to improve the processing to disburse the small business loans valued at about US$ 36.5 million a day.
In addition, Bandhan Bank can now offer its customers a seamless omnichannel experience, whether transacting online or visiting a branch, banking unit, or being served by bank staff. This includes empowering micro loan customers with the ability to make recurring deposits and create term deposit accounts to improve their savings habits.
Oracle’s payment services further enhance operational capabilities, facilitating straight-through processing of domestic and cross-border payments for various business use cases, including vendor, retail, and corporate banking payments. This feature enables the bank to increase revenues through fee charging and recovery.
“With Oracle, Bandhan Bank can accelerate its go-to-market strategy across multiple banking business lines and achieve the agility with total compliance necessary to grow in India’s rapidly changing environment,” said Sonny Singh, EVP and general manager of Oracle Financial Services.